Stop Overpaying Your Mortgage: Insurance, Property Taxes & Escrow Hacks

Natalie Pilkinton (00:00) Welcome back to another episode of Sugar Spice and Spirits podcast where we mix a little bit of real estate, life, business, and enough things to keep it interesting. I'm Natalie Pilkington, along with my amazing co-host. Mindy Price (00:14) Mindy? Kelly Williams (00:15) And Kelly? Natalie Pilkinton (00:17) Before we jump in, can you go ahead and do us a favor? Can you go ahead, like, subscribe, share this episode and send it with every homeowner you know that complains about their mortgage or complains about property taxes but hasn't done anything about it. Wherever you are listening or watching, if you're just listening and you want to see the chaos, check us out on YouTube. You can also send us show topics and drink suggestions as well or spill the tea at sugarspiceandspirits.com. Also, if you're interested in learning more about Mindy's speaking, she's a business speaker, a business coach, my real estate, or Kelly's non-medical in-home care service. Be sure to mention it and spill the tea at sugarspiceandspirits.com and you can also find us each on LinkedIn. ladies, today's episode you will want to pay attention because nobody likes overpaying. Let's be honest, if Texas is known for anything, it's big homes, big hair, and big property tax bills. Kelly Williams (01:15) you Natalie Pilkinton (01:17) Before we get started, I have one that I think you guys will like. You know, we're talking about burning money, firing the whole fireball. This is my sip of the day for you ladies. What do you guys sip? And you got your fireball? Mindy Price (01:30) So you have the fancy fireball, but I knew you were doing fireball. Kelly, go ahead and show them yours first. Kelly Williams (01:38) Sorry, I have the big one. It's not as big as Natalie's, but mine's just the regular go-to. And I just noticed it has like this fun little burnt-out section on the back. Natalie Pilkinton (01:48) I don't think that was that. Mindy Price (01:49) at mine. Kelly Williams (01:51) Yes. Natalie Pilkinton (01:52) It's not the sun, it's Monday. Mindy Price (01:55) not the size. That's right. So I made it fancy. Kelly Williams (02:00) Okay, so you're right, the bigger the bottle, the fuller the glass. Natalie Pilkinton (02:07) True that, True that. Hey, cheers ladies. Mindy Price (02:09) Cheers, ladies! Kelly Williams (02:10) You guys, if you could see this, Mindy's little glass is so cute. It's got like one sip. Natalie and my glass, it's filled to the rim, of course. Next time you need to get three or four of those little small sample fireballs, Mindy. Natalie Pilkinton (02:24) She was like, I'm not doing, I'm not the one today, not today, she said. Mindy Price (02:28) day. Kelly Williams (02:28) Not today, not today. That's funny. Natalie Pilkinton (02:30) So we're gonna talk about keeping money in your pocket from what could be your biggest asset. So we're gonna talk first about insurance. Stop being loyal. Kelly, Mindy, let's go ahead to Kelly. Have you shopped your insurance or homeowners insurance for your place? Kelly Williams (02:47) You know, I have not and the reason why is because I have been with the same insurance company for so many years and we have everything bundled. And now granted, they swear to me that I'm getting the best rate. And that was after they almost wouldn't pick me back up on the new house until I threatened to pull everything from them. And then lo and behold, they were able to cover me. So yeah, short term, no, I have not and I probably need to, but no, I have not unfortunately. Natalie Pilkinton (03:16) Mindy? Mindy Price (03:18) you call us out. Kelly Williams (03:19) You Mindy Price (03:20) Normally have I experienced growth when you do that and I was not anticipating you asking that question and I love the way you framed it on Stop being loyal because I have been very loyal to our insurance agent. I went to high school with them and We have used him for years My father-in-law my sister-in-law and some other family members are have actually said hey you really do need to shop around there is money that could be saved and I said I would do it but I'm committing to it here saying I I will absolutely do it. And I know we're talking about homeowners insurance, but Kelly, you mentioned bundling. I have been needing to shop around on all insurance and just see what's out there. And Natalie, I would bet, and hopefully I'm not going too far in advance, one of the things that you would say is you may be with an agent. So for instance, my guy used to be just an agent in his name for a particular branch. Well, now he's with a huge conglomerate if you would and they say they shop around for me. I don't know insurance but I would imagine it's only within their group of companies and so there's other ones that I can look into and I do think we need to have a follow-up even if it's just a social post if we end up saving money because that is being loyal and that is leaving money on the table and that is burning so cheers to not doing that. Natalie Pilkinton (04:43) Cheers to not burning the money. Kelly Williams (04:43) Well, I'm glad Natalie has brought this topic up because let's face it, a lot of the reasons why people don't shop around is because we don't know the right questions to ask. And you don't want to ask the wrong question, get an inaccurate response, and then you make a poor decision based on just lack of knowledge. So I think today is gonna be, I know it's gonna be super informative for me because yeah, I've got Because down here on the coast, have not only do we have homeowners, but we also have flood insurance, we also have windstorm, which I know those are a little more selective. anyway, yeah, I'm definitely looking forward to this. And I will commit to shopping around myself too, Mindy. So cheers, I'm a little behind, but cheers. Natalie Pilkinton (05:29) So let's talk about something most homeowners ignore, which is the insurance shopping, trusting your agent to shop. They get paid a certain commission from each carrier, and it varies. So I'm not saying that they would steer you the wrong way, but that's something to consider. They're salesmen. They're gonna do what makes best or what's easiest for them sometimes. So don't wait until the week before you shop your insurance. Your homeowner's insurance premium directly affects your mortgage payment. That's in your escrow account. Mindy Price (05:29) Cheers. Natalie Pilkinton (05:57) or even if you pay it out. So Kelly brought up the fact that she's not as versed. know, the insurance market is changing, carriers are coming and going, especially with everything that's going on, weather events, hurricanes, freezes, Arctic blasts, whatever's going on, it's gonna impact that area, that region. So if your insurance going up, your escrow's going up, and you're not really sure how to shop, so you just kinda let it go, and you just pay your monthly payment. which is fine, but I'm not gonna let you keep pouring money out the window or throwing it out the window or burning it and creating that fire. So what's important, Kelly, what I would suggest is you get your deck page from your current insurance policy. Be sure to always save your insurance policies. Save that information when you get it. Do not just throw it away or do not leave it in the email because some of this stuff is time sensitive. You need to download it, put it in your important paper folder. So get that deck page. Yes, ma'am. Mindy Price (06:57) those that don't know declaration you want to tell them you know use your our acronyms are our you know the words that we use in our world all the time somebody's like get your deck page I remember when they changed PowerPoint from you know send me your PowerPoint to send me your deck I'm like send you my what like Natalie Pilkinton (07:15) Yeah, your DEC, D-E-C, Mindy, I don't know where you're going, but DEC deck page, declaration page, you're right, Mindy. I didn't even think of that as an acronym, but you send your declaration page to the other agent, and if you're really loyal to your guy, there is nothing wrong in going back to him and saying, hey, I have this other carrier that's doing this and that, and they may say, ooh, they don't pay out, because there's some carriers that are bad. They'll take your money, but when you need them, they're not gonna show up, or they're gonna fight you on your claim. solution for that as well, but that's another topic. If you give your agent the declaration page or give them the quotes from the other guys, then that at least gives them a fair shake. Like, hey, I love and appreciate you, but here's what I'm getting out in the free market. Can you beat or match? Is it apples to apples? So that's something to take in mind, and I'll go over and give a few more tips. So it's just important that that you are shopping and you're having that conversation and you're not trusting your agent because they're just automatically spitting out the deck page. I will give you guys my example. I shopped my insurance this year and I was getting charged 10,000. I had a big claim in the freeze way back, I think in 2024, 2023 when that happened and I had so many leaks. So I had a lot, I'm in a large spacious home. And with that, it's an older home, we had some issues. So that impacts my insurance rate because of that claim. So I shopped around and I was able to shave like $5,000 off of my payment, which is almost $500 a month in your escrow account that you're paying. So Kelly, did you? Kelly Williams (08:56) Wow. Yeah, so I know there's some people like me. I'm with a particular insurance agency versus like what Mindy spoke about with a, I guess a broker that shops around for you. So do you, I mean, do you feel comfortable going that route and assuming like Mindy said, if they do have certain contracts with certain insurance agencies that you're getting a good selective search from your agent. Like say for instance, I know down here we've got Goosehead, which does all the different searches for you, but then you've got specifics like Allstate or State Farm or Farm Bureau or whatever. So do you recommend or would you recommend if you don't feel comfortable doing this search all on your own, going to one of those larger, I guess brokerages that do deal with multiple insurance agencies or? Natalie Pilkinton (09:55) Yeah, anyway you can save money and ask them. Say, hey, who do you go to? Who are you shopping with? Because they will see that you just got shopped at another place. The difference in the payment may be the commission payment to the agent that's getting paid for that policy. So it is OK to use a brokerage. It's OK to go direct. But get multiple quotes. You want to see three or four from different people, different agencies. You don't want to necessarily get them all from one place. Kelly Williams (09:55) or just. Okay. Natalie Pilkinton (10:23) unless they are really big and can offer that to you. it's okay to get and go to different places. And the thing I don't like is just the soft pull on the credit. They wanna pull the credit. They wanna look at this. So there's some things with that. But if you're doing that within a 30 day window, then it's not as impactful or impactful on your credit if at all. Kelly Williams (10:27) Thank you. Natalie Pilkinton (10:46) So you are not married to your insurance company. This is not a loyalty program, Mindy. If someone else can enter your home for less switch, but I do wanna say double check the carrier ratings. If you put a new roof on your home, like say you put a new roof this year, let your insurance carrier know. If you replace the plumbing or pipes or electrical, let your carrier know because that can reduce your rate. And so people don't even think like, let me call my insurance company and tell them that I just replaced my roof. That could... significantly reduce your payment. You can also do something like a lot of people aren't sure how to save money, they don't really make claims, they handle a lot of stuff in house. You can have a higher deductible in case of a catastrophe, like if something major happens. I know new home purchasers, like I've had my clients ask me, well, what's the point? Like, why do I even need this insurance? What am I, why would I need, what's wrong with me going to a 5 % deductible? And it's like you that covers if you're upstairs toilets, the kids throw something down and it overflows. You're gone and it washes out your whole downstairs. So things like that that you don't think about besides the roof, you know, the and the fire, the major things. It's the other things that happen. So what can you stomach if you had to make a claim in your home on that deductible? So one percent is pretty standard. 2%, 3%, they're even changing it for different claims. So if you have a roof claim, your deductible is 5%. If you have a this claim, it's 1 % if you have. So just take a look and get in and ask questions and understand you can even use ChatGBT to help you or an AI source to help you kind of regulate. You can upload the different policies and ask him to show you the difference and read the declaration pages that you're seeing. And this is really important because escrow refund. the when you change insurance companies, so say you're mid year and you're like okay I found Mindy you're gonna shop you paid in June of last year but you're gonna go ahead and shop right now. You're gonna have a couple of months credit from that old insurance policy so they're gonna refund that to you. So if you cash that refund go ahead and apply it to your escrow. Don't just take it because that's gonna impact your escrow account, which is gonna make your insurance, or not your insurance, your mortgage payments go up. So cancel the old policy, let the mortgage company know, and then you'll, you or your insurance company will reach out to the mortgage company, send the new information and billing, and they'll pay that directly. So you don't even necessarily have to come out any money to pay that policy to make it up if you escrow. So it's wise, but be sure to put that refund check you get from the old policy, apply that directly to the escrow and the mortgage carriers have a way for you to do that. So just reach out, it's definitely worth it. So do you look at your escrow account balance? I know some of you may not escrow, but it's really important that you're looking at that escrow account balance. had somebody on Facebook that I was friends with post that they were gonna be upside down because they did their payment resize their escrow balance on their mortgage statement they showed was negative like negative three thousand that money just doesn't get made up overnight they have to allocate that out recoup that negative amount and then build in for the next year So not only are you gonna have to make up that 3,000, so 250 a month, but you're also gonna have to build in 3,000, so another 250 a month, which is an additional $500 a month, if you're not watching your escrow account, if you see that you're starting to go negative, that it's not adding up, that you're not gonna be able to pay your property taxes, you're not gonna be able to pay your insurance out of there, and come to a zero or a little bit of a credit or a negative, then you wanna start putting cash or extra money towards that escrow. So, and you can do that online. lots of ways to get around that. And if you don't know, call your company and talk to them. Your mortgage company would love to talk to you. Kelly Williams (14:58) So, and one thing I did learn, I recently refinanced the house and when, you don't, if you choose not to do an escrow, if you live in a floodplain, which I do, your lending, your lender, your mortgage company requires that you have an escrow included in your mortgage payment for your flood insurance. That's not an option here in Texas. Non-negotiable. So, because I said, Natalie Pilkinton (15:21) none that goes well. Kelly Williams (15:24) Because initially I said, I don't have an escrow set up because I wanted to keep my payment down and I've just used to always paying ahead and quarterly and blah, blah, blah. But I said, why have I got this escrow? And he said, oh, the mortgage company requires that you do that for strictly just flood insurance. And I do live in a floodplain. So that does automatically get factored in. Natalie Pilkinton (15:44) Yeah, so you can always call and talk to your lender about your escrow. You can request an escrow review. So don't wait on them. They're a billing department. They are not your financial coach. So that's one of the main things. you know, in Texas, we are known. for property taxes. We are like, I think the largest property tax revenue generating, we don't have a state income tax. So I'm gonna talk about that, but there are several other states that are impacted that you can take this information and apply it to. So what is a property protest or like, how do you protest your property taxes? We get this tax bill from the county assessor, we look at it and we're like, there's an I-file number on there typically for the larger counties. You can call and protest or fill out the form and send it in and protest your taxes. Or you can even go online and just look at your tax bill. Like put it to go in January 31st. You want to go in and look and see what they're assessing your property value at. So many times people don't think, think about it. like, they say my home's worth 500,000 now. Woo hoo. That's all fine and dandy. But you don't want to pay taxes on $500,000 if you need to recoke the pool or re-plaster it. You got to redo the ducts. You got a leak in the ceiling. You haven't replaced it in the utility room. Whatever the situation, you got to paint. You got broken siding. That all adds up. So you're getting compared to retail homes. So you want to go ahead and protest your property taxes. Protesting your property taxes simply means, hey, my house is not worth what you say it is. So you can protest the value. You can protest square footage, wrong condition, bad comparisons, or just an overpriced appraisal. And if you're not even sure, like Kelly, you talk about shopping insurance. If we're gonna go ahead and talk about protesting property taxes where you're actually going down to the county and protesting, it can be a daunting task. But you can protest every single year. You don't need a lawyer, you don't need a tax degree, you just need common sense and a little bit of paperwork. So if we were to protest, you have to protest, I wanna say by May 15th or May 31st. Let's go ahead and go with May 15th, because we don't wanna miss that deadline. If you protest May 15th, you want to go ahead and have all your paperwork and everything together and the condition of the house on January 1st, 2026 is what they'll take into account. So it's not now, it's what the house was on January 1st, what that looked like, how it is and how that goes. You don't even have to protest. You can hire another company that you only pay off of the tax savings that they get you. Now nobody's going to work as hard as you for you. And you may have a learning curve of one year. But if you get it down, I would protest every year. Just be sure to give your tax protester, if you're going to have someone represent you, all the information. So if you are protesting, give them pictures, give them bids. If you've had contractors come out and give bids to fix things that need to get fixed, maybe you have old copper wiring, whatever it is, be sure to supply your protester. With that information, so ladies, you know what I'm gonna ask? Who's protesting their property taxes? Mindy, you will be? Kelly Williams (19:07) I will be. Mindy Price (19:10) I need to. Kelly Williams (19:12) So I protested, prot, prot, me, protested last year and draw, and actually took pictures, you know, and I protested based on the fact that it was a praise, that they assessed it more than what I felt like it, not more than it was worth, but it jumped up. And I was like, there were no improvements made. there has not been anything added to the property since I moved in. So I don't know how you come to the fact that it's now worth $80,000 more this year than it was last year. And I actually, if I remember correctly, they brought it down to, I think that dropped it at $60,000. So, I mean, even if you can't, even if you don't have any pictures or anything, if it just keeps it from going up significantly, then it's worth it. it's worth it. And like I get those letters every year from different companies saying they'll do it for me. And I just, you know, I went ahead and did it this year, but I also do it on my rental property as well. So. Natalie Pilkinton (20:14) That's 1800 in savings at a 3 % tax rate. So just to put that in perspective, so you save yourself $1800. Will you show up for $1800? I don't know. I don't know how much you have to save and how much room you have on your property, but is your primary residence? You need to go ahead and make sure that you have a homestead exemption. If you've closed on a property in the past five years, forever, whatever, just check. Kelly Williams (20:17) Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Natalie Pilkinton (20:39) You can go to the county appraisal district, your county appraisal district, and double check your exemptions. Do you have the homestead exemption? Are you over 65? Do you have the senior exemption? Do you have the veteran exemption? Like there's different things if you're a disabled veteran that you can do that'll freeze your taxes. Like there's so many different things. So protesting, like if you're home, primary residence. It lowers the amount of your home that gets taxed. So instead of paying taxes on $350,000, you might only pay taxes on $250,000. So that's real money, but here's the catch. It's not automatic. You have to apply. If you bought a home, never filled it out, congratulations, you've been overpaying. Title companies do not file this paperwork, and it is up to the homeowner to do this. So it's a simple form on your county appraisal district website. You download it, send it in, check for your family, check for your parents, check for your brother and sister, make sure that they're exempt because this is huge savings. Typically, your taxable amount can increase with the appreciation like Kelly experienced. It can go up astronomically, especially when interest rates are low or you've got a big plant moving in or jobs or facility, whatever can impact that. So When your home is homestead exempt, it can only increase 10%. So it's like putting the brakes on that massive amount. So another benefit to homestead exemption, Texas limits how fast your taxable values can rise, which is what I just mentioned. For some non-homestead properties like rentals or vacant land valued under five million, Texas recently added a 20 % limitation on appraised value increase. But that doesn't apply to residential homesteads that's covered by that 10%. So if you're running a business, you're still gonna pay a little bit more, even though land's not a business necessarily. you're still gonna have that increase there. And I know for Texas, Paul Benton Court is really big for county appraisal or fighting back on taxes and getting rid of the property taxes or trying to limit the reach of the property taxes. Seems that everybody has their hand in our pockets. running for school board. I saw that not necessarily within the school board, although everybody wants bonds, everybody wants this money, and they want to kick the can down the road and have it financed for 20,000 years, including computers, which is absolutely insane. They also like the MUDs. If you're in a MUD district, that's separate than the county tax bill, although they do base their numbers off of what the county appraisal assesses your property at. So it's important. All of them tie together, school taxes, mud taxes, county taxes. So be aware and protest because Kelly's saving that at 3%, which her rate may be lower, it may be higher, but it's just a good round number. That's 1,800. What's the best reach? Kelly Williams (23:30) Well, the exemptions are... Go ahead. No, I was gonna say the exemptions, my cousin had a house that's a lot smaller than mine. Her acreage, her square footage, everything was almost three times smaller than mine. She never claimed homestead exemption and her taxes were off the charts compared to mine. She goes, how are you not paying taxes? said, well, my homestead exemption. She was like, well, what is that? Mindy Price (23:52) you Kelly Williams (23:58) So along those same lines, my rental property, it is a smaller home, smaller acreage. I'm on three acres here. I've got a barn and a house and a guest house and everything. And my taxes are lower here at my homestead property than at my rental property because number one, I have no exemptions there. And so all the more reason why I'm definitely going to protest both of those, but especially the rental property because it's already almost $2,000 more than what I pay here. So it's definitely worth it. Even if it just goes up a small fraction, it's better than it going up an astronomical amount. Natalie Pilkinton (24:35) So not only does the Texas Homestead Law protect your primary residence from most creditors, it means your home usually can't be forced into sell to pay off debt, like for credit card, medical bills, personal loans, lawsuit judgments, exemptions or exceptions, mortgage property taxes, HOA dues, wonderful HOAs, home equity loans, federal tax liens. So that would be the five. exceptions to not having your homestead exemption be impactful for you in that situation. Texas has one of the strongest homestead protections in the U.S. It prevents the certain force sells, it reduces the taxable value, which we've discussed, but there's also a surviving spouse protection. So if a spouse passes away, the surviving spouse may keep the tax benefits. The homestead protections can continue. Texas doesn't kick you. while you're down, which is nice, right? I know for provider in the family, if you're a man, you want to take care of your spouse. You don't want to have them paying a lot more. additional protections for seniors, 65 plus, disabled homeowners, your school taxes are frozen, your tax bill stops increases, increasing, and you can defer taxes if needed. So that's pretty nice. And a lot of that happened because of the development. I know it's growing so much, we've got three loops. We've got practically four, if you count 610, 1960 Highway 6, Beltway, and Grand Parkway. We've got four loops, and we just keep growing and growing and absorbing. So what was happening is we're growing out, and this is all over with that growth. You're growing and you're taking over Grandpa Jack's farm, and Grandpa Jack is used to playing just a little bit, and all of sudden Grandpa Jack's having a, he can't afford his farm anymore. So a lot of the community voted for this. I remember when it was on the ballot, because I also remember the small farms and how they were just getting absorbed. Ingranted people aren't able to pass on the farms like they want to, but Texas also takes care of our veterans and disabled homeowners. If you're 100 % disabled veteran, you may qualify for 100 % property tax exemption on your homestead. That means zero, not a no property taxes. Kelly Williams (26:51) you Natalie Pilkinton (26:56) There are also partial exemptions for different disability ratings and special exemptions for disabled homeowners who aren't veterans. If this applies to you and you haven't filed, that's money you're leaving on the table. And Texas is more than happy to keep it. They ain't gonna say, you don't have a homestead exemption on this home. Are you sure you don't want it? Title companies used to fill that form out for you. Now it's like they don't fill it out. I think that's, of course title companies make the least I think out of all the transactions. So I guess I can see why they don't do it. If you're over 65 or disabled, you may also qualify for a tax deferral. This doesn't erase your taxes, but it lets you delay in paying them. So it's kicking the can down the road. Maybe you're not able to, you're not flushed with cash, but you got equity in the home. So you're leaving it for whoever takes over the home. They'll have to pay that whenever they. whenever they go to sell, when your estate goes to sell, if you don't have the property in a trust. So, Texas is kind of its own animal when it comes to property taxes, no state income tax, but they make up for it with high property taxes. You know, a lot of athletes, when they look to come to Texas, they're like, yes, there's no state income tax, and then they look at the property tax and they're like, okay. Mindy Price (28:08) But Natalie, that's hurt so many people. You don't realize it. And somebody says, I paid my home off and you're happy for them. But then they can't even afford to stay in it because of property taxes and because of insurance. Like those two things truly have created. investor dreams, right? It's like, oh, well that's happening. I'm sorry, but a business, we're gonna take advantage of that. It is a harsh reality if you're not paying attention to this. And it is something that sneaks up on you if you're not looking at the escrow and you think, my, I can remember years ago having a conversation with somebody where their home and escrow payment, their mortgage was $600 and then it was $2,600. That's a... huge difference and you know I had a house my payment was around $4,400 and then through taxes and insurance going up, you know, it went up a couple thousand dollars and I that's those are just significant increases and it is something that everybody needs to pay attention to and I love all of these little nuggets of information that you're giving because someone might not be thinking, I have 10 % disability. I wonder if I could get some sort of discount off of my property taxes from that. You very well may be able to so it's something you definitely want to look into and I did want to let you know that I was waiting for you to say something else. I had already made a sticky note about my property taxes this year when you were talking about it. No, previously, even before you said I'm like, I need to. And then there wasn't the opportunity for me to go, I have this. So. Kelly Williams (29:36) You Natalie Pilkinton (29:37) Did you write it just now or did you write it previously? Kelly Williams (29:47) No! Natalie Pilkinton (29:49) I'm rubbing off on y'all. Good. That's good. I hope I'm rubbing off on you guys and that you actually file your property protest and that you shop your insurance no matter where you're at, no matter what market. And if you have any questions on that, reach out. I'd love to help. I don't mind at all. I have one client that actually pays zero in property taxes and it took me a minute. I'm like, he showed me his tax bill. I'm like, well, let's not reach out to the taxing authority because I don't know what's going on with this. Now, as I've learned, I'm understanding more the disability, the elderly, the VA, that type of thing. So lots of good things. So as far as Texas property taxes similarity, Florida, Nevada, Arizona, North Carolina, Georgia. So what makes Texas different? has one of the strongest homestead protections in the US, a 10 % cap on taxable value increase, very accessible protest system, no state income tax, and extremely strong credit protection. So that doesn't mean everybody come move to Texas, but if you want to come, go ahead and come on. We welcome you. So big picture strategy, smart Texas homeowners do three things. It's not only three things, but three things. Protest the property taxes every year, maximize their exemptions and shop their insurance regularly. I cannot tell you how many people are going to get that escrow resize this year and they're going to be in a pucker factor because they're going to get hit. Kelly Williams (31:11) Mm-hmm. Natalie Pilkinton (31:15) with that $500 extra payment like the example I used earlier, 250 from the rears, 250 to make it up so they're not in the rears at the end of the year, 500 in a working class family, we're still being impacted by inflation, we still have some other things going on, everybody has their hand in our pocket, it's gonna be impactful. So pay attention, read it, look at it, I know some of you may not wanna see it right now, but at least be aware of it and see if you can't. Kelly Williams (31:36) Mm-hmm. Natalie Pilkinton (31:42) put some stop blocks in place or start chunking in money towards that escrow so that it's not so bad. So you're not like. Kelly Williams (31:48) Well, it has to factor in the fact that keep in mind also how much the medical premiums have gone up. So think about if you've got your medical premiums going up and now you've got your homeowners and everything going up, it can really break your budget to the point that that's one of the reasons why some people are not, you know, can't afford to stay in their home. Like Mindy said, you just can't afford to stay in there because your monthly expenses, you know, by far outweigh what your monthly income is. So you've got your right. You've got to be on top of it. Natalie Pilkinton (32:19) My appraisal went up so much I thought my house came with a personal chef. Kelly Williams (32:23) You gosh. I love it. Natalie Pilkinton (32:28) So yeah, you're not fighting the system, you're using the system. Texas gives homeowners tools, most people just don't use them. And the county, they absolutely love that. So if you found this episode helpful, please share it with someone who complains about their mortgage or the property taxes and hasn't done anything about it yet. And remember, we're here to bring the sugar spice in real talk. So thank you guys, cheers y'all.